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Post by deathtoming on Mar 16, 2022 1:57:21 GMT
This may have come up on everyone's news feeds already, but I thought I'd bring it up here in case anyone missed it: the original artwork for the A Day at the Races cover went up for auction, and sold on March 9th for £21,000+taxes/fees to an American buyer. Also noteworthy is that the designer, David Costa, says he likely threw out the original artwork for A Night at the Opera. Finished artwork here:   The auction included that finished crest, as well as these two items:   At the same auction, this Queen logo (modelled after the "Q" in the Races crest and used in promotional material) sold for £1,800.  Here's an article that publicized the auction before it happened, and includes Costa's comments about A Night at the Opera art: www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/uk/queen-album-cover-artwork-to-go-under-hammer-but-second-binned-in-error-41375785.htmlReading about the auction reminded me of the time I stumbled upon some internet forum about Victorian collectible dinnerware plates last year or so. Someone claimed that the one of the fairies from the Races cover was a direct copy of a fairy on one of these Victorian plates, and posted the image of the plate to supposedly prove it. I can't find that post now! Does anyone know what I'm talking about, or heard a similar claim? |
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Post by The Real Wizard on Mar 16, 2022 23:24:07 GMT
My god, it's incredible to see these. Nice to the artist take it all in stride, but still, what a disappointment that he turfed the Opera artwork, which could've been easily avoided.
Would love to see the Victorian plate you mention too.
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cmi
Ploughman
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Post by cmi on Mar 17, 2022 6:54:47 GMT
I'm so surprised that all these originals are not in QPL archives. Same for NEWS OF THE WORLD artwork.
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Post by deathtoming on Mar 17, 2022 18:01:05 GMT
Would love to see the Victorian plate you mention too.
I spent quite a bit of time trying to find that forum again, but no luck so far. I recall the forum for Victorian plates (and other antiques?) had a dated design, with orange and black as the predominant colours. Again, if anyone has any leads, please let me know. It's driving me nuts. |
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Post by deathtoming on Mar 17, 2022 18:22:26 GMT
I'm so surprised that all these originals are not in QPL archives. Same for NEWS OF THE WORLD artwork. Yeah, I was wondering about that. Maybe the band was only interested in hanging on to the finished product with the album name and everything on it, and not the process work? I can see that being the case, especially at the time of an album's release, when there is a lot going on. That said, I would think Queen would be more interested in the process work these days, now that the historical significance can be appreciated. So how do these end up on auction sites? Do the owners not reach out to Queen first to see if they'd be interested in buying it? And if so, are they not interested? That would surprise me, knowing Brian's interest in the band's history. You already mentioned News of the World, and Hot Space is another one. I can't believe this (and the other three faces) would end up on eBay, and only sell for a total of $1750!  |
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Steve
Wordles & Heardles 
Queen Mab
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Post by Steve on Mar 17, 2022 19:17:41 GMT
Great to see these.
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cmi
Ploughman
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Post by cmi on Mar 18, 2022 8:52:20 GMT
It's intersting to note that 'white' elements on Freddie's moustache were omitted for a final artwork.
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Post by deathtoming on Mar 18, 2022 19:51:22 GMT
Found a better shot of Freddie, along with one of Brian. The stroke marks are very visible.   From the eBay listing: "4 original ink drawings on vellum, mounted on board. By artists: Norm Ung, John Barr, and Steve Miller. I will also include the original press proof of the cover." [...] "This is the only info I have when I purchased these drawings in NYC 1990 from the former art director of Asylum Records in the 80's." I would love to see Freddie's original design to see how closely they match. I would assume they'd be close since he claims to have drawn/designed the cover himself. |
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cmi
Ploughman
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Post by cmi on Mar 19, 2022 19:49:44 GMT
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pg
Queen Mab
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Post by pg on Mar 20, 2022 8:32:54 GMT
Wonder whose decision it was to remove JDs eye.
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cmi
Ploughman
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Post by cmi on Mar 20, 2022 10:49:18 GMT
Wonder whose decision it was to remove JDs eye. It's so pity we can't see both eyes. |
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dysan
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Post by dysan on Mar 20, 2022 13:48:22 GMT
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Post by deathtoming on Mar 20, 2022 15:02:26 GMT
Queen should have released Cool Cat as an A-side just to make that the picture sleeve. |
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thefonz
Tatterdemalion
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Post by thefonz on Apr 5, 2022 4:30:01 GMT
weirdly enough Hot Space is one of my favourite covers. Amazing to see the original images.
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Post by angusscrimm on Apr 5, 2022 13:01:33 GMT
Freddie's moustache looks like the Bat symbol.
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dane
Satyr
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Post by dane on Apr 6, 2022 14:44:19 GMT
Wow, these are all really great to see! Are there any photographs of the original News of the World painting? (not just a scan of the sleeve.. obviously  |
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pg
Queen Mab
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Post by pg on Apr 6, 2022 19:12:57 GMT
Wow, these are all really great to see! Are there any photographs of the original News of the World painting? (not just a scan of the sleeve.. obviously The auction house that sold them had zoomable scans on their website at the time. I'll try and find a link later, but you could probably find it via google |
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Post by deathtoming on Apr 7, 2022 1:06:23 GMT
Wow, these are all really great to see! Are there any photographs of the original News of the World painting? (not just a scan of the sleeve.. obviously :))   I always imagined they were much larger, but they each measure 28 x 15 inches. They sold for a total of $62,575 US plus fees in 2019. From the Bonham's auction site listing: "The artwork was purchased by the current owner directly from Kelly Freas at a show of his work at the 40th World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) in Chicago, 1982." |
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Post by deathtoming on Sept 6, 2023 2:28:44 GMT
[...from my post about the auction for the original artwork for the A Day at the Races album...] Reading about the auction reminded me of the time I stumbled upon some internet forum about Victorian collectible dinnerware plates last year or so. Someone claimed that the one of the fairies from the Races cover was a direct copy of a fairy on one of these Victorian plates, and posted the image of the plate to supposedly prove it. I can't find that post now! Does anyone know what I'm talking about, or heard a similar claim? I was going crazy trying to find that image again, or even people discussing it, but there were no leads and I had given up. Then someone posted an image of the (not Victorian) plate on Twitter today. I thought I'd never see it again, wow. Tagging The Real Wizard since he expressed interest in a follow up. Anyway, the plate had an illustration of the "Jasmine Fairy" by illustrator Cicely Mark Barker, from the book A Flower Fairy Alphabet, published in 1934. Also, it wasn't A Day At The Races but A Night At The Opera, and the earliest logo. I threw together a comparison:  |
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cmi
Ploughman
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Post by cmi on Sept 6, 2023 7:41:16 GMT
Nice find indeed! I wonder if the second fairy was inspired by someone's illustration/paining as well...
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Post by The Real Wizard on Sept 6, 2023 17:50:34 GMT
[...from my post about the auction for the original artwork for the A Day at the Races album...] Reading about the auction reminded me of the time I stumbled upon some internet forum about Victorian collectible dinnerware plates last year or so. Someone claimed that the one of the fairies from the Races cover was a direct copy of a fairy on one of these Victorian plates, and posted the image of the plate to supposedly prove it. I can't find that post now! Does anyone know what I'm talking about, or heard a similar claim? I was going crazy trying to find that image again, or even people discussing it, but there were no leads and I had given up. Then someone posted an image of the (not Victorian) plate on Twitter today. I thought I'd never see it again, wow. Tagging The Real Wizard since he expressed interest in a follow up. Anyway, the plate had an illustration of the "Jasmine Fairy" by illustrator Cicely Mark Barker, from the book A Flower Fairy Alphabet, published in 1934. Also, it wasn't A Day At The Races but A Night At The Opera, and the earliest logo. I threw together a comparison: Beautiful - thanks for following up on this. And thanks to Google Images (what an age we live in), I was able to quickly find a couple nice higher resolution versions:   |
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Post by deathtoming on Sept 7, 2023 3:55:36 GMT
Nice find indeed! I wonder if the second fairy was inspired by someone's illustration/paining as well... I made a typo in my previous post about the illustrator's name, so I'll fix it here. I meant to type Cicely Mary (not Mark) Barker. I went through each of the other Alphabet Fairies and found this:  The bugle on the Queen crest fairy likely comes from the Bugle Fairy. This is much more evident when you see the early sketches from the Sotheby's auction, where Freddie repeatedly draws the bugle with the same "X"-strap as seen in the Bugle Fairy illustration, although I guess there are only so many ways to carry a bugle. Sotheby's lot: www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2023/freddie-mercury-a-world-of-his-own-on-stage/freddie-mercury-ink-drawings-for-the-queen-crest-cI went through the rest of the Alphabet Fairies, along with 7 other sets of Flower Fairy drawings by Barker to look for a possible origin of the fairy on the left. Some came close, but there was no direct copy like the other fairy. This was a close one, if you do a mirror image: flowerfairies.com/the-narcissus-fairy/Also in the Sotheby's lot, the early sketch shows that the fairy on the left was originally standing up and playing a pan flute. There was one Flower Fairy standing and playing a flute, although the posture is different: flowerfairies.com/ragged-robin-fairy/So, nothing definitive. But I am now much more knowledgeable about Flower Fairies than I was before. |
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billy
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Post by billy on Sept 9, 2023 12:46:11 GMT
Fascinating. I always thought the fairies were reminiscent of Richard Dadd’s The Fairy Feller’s Master-Stroke (for obvious reasons), but never explored it beyond the painting itself. Thanks for all this!
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Post by deathtoming on Sept 10, 2023 23:35:34 GMT
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cmi
Ploughman
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Post by cmi on Sept 11, 2023 4:57:18 GMT
Amazing!
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agkelly
Tatterdemalion
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Post by agkelly on Oct 8, 2023 6:15:21 GMT
I couldn't believe it at the time, and I still can't believe it today.
Maybe a year ago or so, after having been a huge Queen fan for nearly 30yrs and ADATR being one of my more higher-played cds, plus my ADATR t-shirt being a favourite of mine, I only noticed on that day a year ago on the t-shirt that the right-side fairy has her little breast out. I'd never noticed it before. Later that day, my ultra-conservative wife also noticed it and questioned my motive for wearing a t-shirt displaying a female nipple!
Weird that both of us separately happened to discover it on the exact same day.
Thankfully she's never watched the Bicycle Race video clip..!
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pg
Queen Mab
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Post by pg on Oct 8, 2023 7:42:54 GMT
my ultra-conservative wife also noticed it and questioned my motive for wearing a t-shirt displaying a female nipple! To cover up your actual male ones? |
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agkelly
Tatterdemalion
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Post by agkelly on Oct 9, 2023 0:07:12 GMT
my ultra-conservative wife also noticed it and questioned my motive for wearing a t-shirt displaying a female nipple! To cover up your actual male ones? I think she'd be happier for me to go around without a shirt on than for me to have at- shirt on that displays a girl's breast. Which I completely agree with, except this one's tiny, barely noticeable, and a cartoon fairy. And it's Queen. That point alone should be reason enough! |
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